NASKAH PUBLIKASI A Study On The Ambiguity Found In English Exercises Of Vocational School Student’s Exercise Books.

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NASKAH PUBLIKASI

A STUDY ON THE AMBIGUITY FOUND IN ENGLISH

EXERCISES OF VOCATIONAL SCHOOL STUDENT’S

EXERCISE BOOKS

Ditulis oleh:

ATIK PRAMITASIH A 320 080 091

PENDIDIKAN BAHASA INGGRIS

FAKULTAS KEGURUAN DAN ILMU PENDIDIKAN

UNIVERSITAS MUHAMMADIYAH SURAKARTA

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ii APPROVAL

A STUDY ON THE AMBIGUITY FOUND IN ENGLISH EXERCISES OF

VOCATIONAL SCHOOL STUDENT’S EXERCISE BOOKS

Arranged by: ATIK PRAMITASIH

A320080091

Approved by:

First Consultant

Prof. Dr. Endang Fauziati, M.Hum

Second Consultant

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ACCEPTANCE

Accepted by the board of Examiners School of Teacher Training and Education Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta

on Oktober 2012

1. Prof. Dr. Endang Fauziati, M.Hum( ) (Chair Person)

2. Dra. Malikatul Laila, M.Hum. ( ) (Member I)

3. Drs. H. Maryadi, M.A ( ) (Member II)

Approved by

School of Teacher Training and Education Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta

Dean,

(Drs. H Sofyan Anif, M Si) NIK. 547

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A STUDY ON THE AMBIGUITY FOUND IN ENGLISH EXERCISES OF VOCATIONAL SCHOOL STUDENT’S EXERCISE BOOKS

Atik Pramitasih (Student)

Prof. Dr. Endang Fauziati, M.Hum (Consultant I) Dra. Malikatul Laila, M.Hum (Consultant II)

(School of Teacher Training and Education, Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta)

([email protected]) ABSTRACT

The study aims on identifying the types, describing the frequency and the dominant type and also describing the way to disambiguate the 101 ambiguous sentences found in vocational school student’s exercise books entitled Forum, Pista, Prestige 1, Prestige 2, Prestige 3, Prestige 4, Modul Mentari 1 and Modul Mentari 2. The object of the study is the ambiguous word, phrase, or sentence on the eighth exercise books. The type of this study is qualitative research. The method of collecting data is documentation. The technique of the data analysis is using descriptive qualitative. It means the researcher identifying the types of ambiguity by Hurford Heasly and James theory for lexical ambiguity and Kreidler theory for syntactical ambiguity, describing the frequency of each ambiguity by using table and chart, deciding the most dominant ambiguity and then disambiguating the ambiguous sentences by using different ways from some linguists. The finding shows that the writer finds lexical ambiguity (23,8%) and structural or syntactic ambiguity (76,2%). Lexical ambiguity divided into some part of speech; verbs (3%), nouns (16,8%), and adjectives (4%). Syntactic ambiguity divided into surface-structure ambiguity (58,4%); a coordinate head with one modifier (8,91%), a complement and modifier or two complements (23,8%), a head with an inner modifier and an outer modifier (24,7%), certain function words, including not, have possible differences in scope (1%) and deep-structure ambiguity (17,8%); gerund+object or participle modifying a noun (2%), and also certain noun phrase (15,8%). The dominant type of ambiguity is 77 sentences (76,2%) of structural ambiguous. The writer finds paraphrasing, adding preposition of, moving sentence construction, adding additional context, using hyphen (-) and using picture as the effective way to disambiguate ambiguity. Keywords: Ambiguity, the way to disambiguate ambiguity, English exercise books 1. Introduction

Background of the Study: As the tools to measure the student’s comprehension in mastering the material, student’s exercise book usually loads and proposes some questions and exercises which are planned to guide the students with the lesson materials or instruction materials. Teachers from

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elementary to senior high school in Indonesia use student’s exercise book of English since long time ago although their writing is imperfect at all and still need a lot of correction. Not only that, even vocational school right now is using exercise books of English although the purpose of that school is oriented to an occupation after graduation. The exercises are just arranged in a little bit simple than senior high school exercise books from the material and sentence construction and of course related to the student’s major. It is very useful for students because this book contains materials, summary, grammar, vocabulary, daily exercise, mid-semester test and final semester test. However, sometime students face some difficulties on understanding questions which are listed on their exercise book. They fell confuse and doubt because the words or sentences have ambiguous interpretation or more than one interpretations called ambiguity.

Ambiguity is the condition whereby any linguistic form has two or more interpretations (Kreidler, 1998: 298). Words or sentences are called ambiguous when it has more than one sense. If it happened to a word, it is called lexical ambiguity. Of course, this word makes a sentence have two or more meaning such as the words smart in the sentence “this will make you smart” since the meaning of smart is “clever” or “burning sensation”. In addition, ambiguity which occurred because of the structure of the sentence is called as a syntactical ambiguity or structural ambiguity. The example is served in the sentence “for sale: an antique desk suitable for lady with thick legs and large drawers”. Its interpretation becomes humorous into “for lady with thick legs and large drawers” and “thick legs and large drawers which belongs to the desk” (Fromkin and Rodman and Hyams, 2003: 122). So, English teachers must analyze it deeply before deciding the answer and telling it to their students.

For that reasons, the writer will show the examples on analyzing ambiguous constructions model of tests matter on English exercise books, such as: (1) ‘You want your friend to change a film on your camera’ (Pista: 63) and (2) ‘Introducing when met friends in front of their class room’ (Forum: 21). The (1) sentence shows a lexical ambiguity in the word ‘film. On the English dictionary, film means film for camera or movie. It is ambiguous. In the first context, the

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meaning merely changes a film for camera on storing pictures, while the second is changing a movie which can be watched by such digital camera. The (2) sentence means introducing in front of their class room about a friend or when met a friends in front of their class room, we introduce him/her then in the other place. It is a kind of deep-structure ambiguity which belongs to syntactical ambiguity.

Problems Statement of this research are; (1) what are the types of ambiguity? (2) what is the frequency of ambiguity? (3) what is the dominant type of ambiguity? and (4) what are the reasons ambiguity?

Objectives of the Study are to describe the types of ambiguity, the frequency of the ambiguity, the dominant type of ambiguity, the reasons of ambiguity.

2. Previous Study

Luqman Al Hakim’s Work; A Study on the Ambiguity Found in English Test for Junior High School Students (UMS, 2009). His topic is on ambiguity

that are found in the English test of Junior High School students. He wanted to describe the types of ambiguity found in English exercise books for junior high school students, the frequency of each types of ambiguity, and the way to disambiguate of the ambiguous sentences. His study is a descriptive qualitative research. In collecting data, the writer used reading and observing the English tests on English exercise books for junior high school entitled Basis, Inovasi, Mandiri, Merpati, Sportif, Talenta, and Pidjar and presenting, and putting them into a list of data. There are 48 ambiguous sentences as the data of this study. The writer analyzed the types of ambiguity found in English exercise books for junior high school students, the frequency of each types of ambiguity, and the way to disambiguate of the ambiguous sentences. The results of this study showed based on the percentage of each types of ambiguity, the dominant ambiguous sentences appeared in the data is lexical ambiguity with the total number of ambiguous sentences are 25 ambiguous sentences (52, 1%). He found the methods to disambiguate the ambiguous sentence, namely; paraphrasal selection and truth conditional selection.

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Natasha Jacobus’s work; The Study of Structural Ambiguity in The Interview Articles of English Tempo Magazine (UKP, 2007). Her topic is on

structural ambiguity in the Interview articles of English Tempo Magazine. She wanted to know what kinds of syntactic ambiguities that potentially occurred in the Interview’s article and how they were resolved. This study used the qualitative descriptive approach. In collecting data, the writer took nine Interview articles of the English Tempo magazine which were written by Indonesian writers. Moreover, in analyzing the data, she used the main theory of Transformational Grammar (Radford, 1988) which was applied in tree diagram. Through the findings, she found sixteen potentially structurally ambiguous phrases when they were observed separately from the context. There would be one or more than two ambiguities in each article. The potentially ambiguous phrases were Noun phrase, Prepositional phrase, and Verb phrases in term of negative scope ambiguity. Thus, in order to understand the actual meaning of the ambiguous phrases, they supposedly had to be put into the context of the sentences. However, if the ambiguous phrases were taken separately from its context, we could still resolve the ambiguity by adding the hyphen (-) or the preposition (of) between the head and the modifier.

Susan Kristianty’s work; The Structural and Lexical Ambiguity Found in Cleo Magazine Advertisements (UKP, 2006). Her topic are lexical and

strucrutal ambiguity found in advertisement of Cleo Magazine. She wanted to analyze the words/ sentences that can be structurally and lexically ambiguous, the meaning, frequency and dominantly appear in advertisements of Cleo Magazine. She applied the theory of structural and lexical ambiguity from Hurford and Heasley’s theory (1984). She also used the theory of syntactic structures by Adrian Akmajian (1995) and Nelson Francis (1954). She found the ambiguity in the advertisements by those theories and also finds the meanings from the dictionary. This study used a descriptive qualitative approach. In analyzing the data, she identified the structurally ambiguous sentences by using Tree Diagrams or IC Analysis. Moreover, she found that there are five structural ambiguities including three declaratives sentences, one adjective phrase and one noun phrase.

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There are also 10 lexical ambiguities that are included in the advertisements; there are four nouns, two verbs, three adjectives and one adverb. Finally, she found that lexical ambiguity occurs more frequently than structural ambiguity of advertisements in Cleo Magazine.

Position of the Study. Based on the previous study above, researcher will show the difference between this research and the previous to prove that she is not doing plagiarism. The difference between first research and this research is on the data source. The researcher attempts to analyze of ambiguity found in English exercise on exercise book for Vocational School students entitled Forum, Pista, Prestige 1, Prestige 2, Prestige 3, Prestige 4, Modul Mentari Bersinar 1 and Modul Mentari Bersinar 2, while the first researcher used the data source taken from English Test of Junior High School students.

Next, the second researcher analyzed only on structural ambiguity in the Interview articles of the English Tempo magazine using Transformational Grammar theory but this research not only analyzes structural ambiguity (deep-structure ambiguity and surface-(deep-structure ambiguity) but also lexical ambiguity. The other difference is definitely on the data source. While the second researcher used Interview articles of the English Tempo magazine, this research is using student’s exercise book.

Subsequently, the third research also analyzed on structural ambiguity, but the data source is the advertisement in Cleo Magazine by using Harford and Heasly’s theory. On the other hand, the difference showed from the data source and the objective of the research. This research is not only analyzing structural ambiguity (deep-structure ambiguity and surface-structure ambiguity) but also lexical ambiguity. Finally, looking all of the previous study above, the writer wants to enrich the knowledge and extend the previous research especially on ambiguous construction, types, causes and the ways to disambiguate it.

3. Ambiguity

Ambiguity is a construction whether it is sentence, clause, phrase or word which has more than one meaning or has two interpretations. According to Kreidler (1998: 7):

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“sometimes two words sound the same but have different meanings (homonyms), and sometimes sequences of words with the same pronunciation have different interpretations (ambiguity)”.

Some sentences have double interpretations; they can be interpreted into two ways. Speakers are aware of this fact because they appreciate joke which depends on two-way interpretations, like the following sentences. 1) ‘Marjorie doesn’t care for her parakeet’ (doesn’t like it; doesn’t take care of it). 2) ‘Marjorie took the sick parakeet to a small animal hospital’ (small hospital for animals; hospital for small animals) (Kreidler, 1998: 11) Well then, ambiguity is divided into two. If the ambiguity is in a single word it is lexical ambiguity. If it is happened in a sentence or clause, it is grammatical or structural ambiguity.

4. Types of Ambiguity

According to Prideux and Baker, “two basic types of ambiguity have been discussed by linguists: lexical ambiguity and structural ambiguity” (1976: 1). It means that the basic types of ambiguity are divided into two: (1) syntactic ambiguity and (2) lexical ambiguity.

a. Syntactic Ambiguity

Bach states that structural ambiguity occurs when a phrase or sentence has more than one underlying structure (1998: 1). For the example, the meaning of the phrase “old men and women” is structurally ambiguous. It is synonymous with women and old men and with old men and old women. They represent these two senses with square brackets: 1) [old men] and women and 2) old [men and women] (Hurford, Heasly and Smith, 2007: 136). The first bracket indicates that old modifies only men, and the second indicates that old modifies the whole phrase men and women. Structural ambiguity or syntactical ambiguity is divided into deep-structure ambiguity and surface-structure ambiguity. Deep structure ambiguity depends on different interpretations of grammatical relations such as subject and direct object in a given sentence. While, surface structure ambiguity is generally associated with the scope or groupings of various words. 1) Surface-structure Ambiguity

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Surface structure ambiguity refers to those sentences in which the surface string can be bracketed in two distinct ways, one for each of the meanings (Prideaux and Baker, 1976: 2). An example of surface structure ambiguity is the sentence cited here: ‘The stout doctor's wife stayed at home’. The sentence is structurally ambiguous in the sense that stout can modify either doctor or wife. Structural ambiguity occurs in those sentences in which strings of words can be grouped in different ways. Those are “the wife of stout doctor's” and “stout wife of the doctor”. So, that’s why Kreidler states that surface-structure ambiguity is when words can cluster together in different possible constructions (1998: 169). Kinds of surface structure ambiguity according to Kreidler (1998: 169-170) are: 1) onstructions containing the coordinators and and or, 2) a coordinate head with one modifier, 3) a complement and modifier or two complement, 4) a head with an inner modifier and an outer modifier, 5) certain function words, including not, have possible differences in scope, and 6) a head with a coordinate modifier. 2) Deep-structure Ambiguity

Reed proposes that deep-structure ambiguity refers to more than one set of linguistic relationships are possible between words of a statement (2005: 189). An example of deep structure ambiguity is the sentence ‘The mayor ordered the police to stop drinking’. The sentence above means: "The mayor ordered the police to cease drinking" or “The mayor ordered the police to prevent drinking". The first paraphrase means that the police themselves have been drinking and that they should stop. The deep structure analysis of this reading contains the noun phrase (NP) the police as the subject of both stop and drink. The second paraphrase presumed that others have been drinking and the task of the police is to prevent further drinking. The deep structure analysis of this second reading contains the NP the police as the subject of stop but the subject of drink is an unspecified NP such as someone or others. Here, kinds of deep-structure ambiguity which divided into three types by Kreidler (1998: 170). There are 1) gerund+object or participle modifying a noun., 2) adjective+infinitive, tied to subject or to complement and 3) ellipsis in comparative constructions.

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Radford said that an ambiguous word corresponds to two or more distinct lexemes and normally has two (or more) distinct entries in a conventional dictionary such as match or bank (2009: 232). See this example of lexical ambiguity. ‘I see a beautiful school in the SeaWorld’. The first meaning to be guessed for the underlined word is an educational institution. Through the context, the meaning here is a group of fish of the same species moving together. The meaning is distantly different. According to Kreidler (1998: 56), “ambiguity occurs also because a longer linguistic form has a literal sense and a figurative”, like ‘There’s a skeleton in our closet’. Skeleton in the closet can mean ‘an unfortunate event that is kept a family secret.’ With this meaning skeleton in the closet is a single lexeme; with its ‘literal’ meaning it is a phrase composed of several lexemes.

5. The Reasons of Ambiguity

Any linguistics form may have more than one interpretation because of some reasons. There are; 1) without context (Reed), 2) ambiguous word order (Mohunen and Portunen), 3) improper or missing punctuation (Lamb) and 4) faulty pronoun reference (Hasnain).

Without Context. Reed clarified on his book that ambiguity is statements with more than one meaning that, without context, may be interpreted inaccurately (2005: 189). Context helps sentence to distinct the meaning of ambiguous word. So, the sentence will be clearly interpreted. In common use almost every word has many shades of meaning, and therefore needs to be interpreted by the context. The example is: ‘She can not bear a baby’. The sentence is lexically ambiguous since the sentence that is containing the word ‘bear’ has no additional context. First interpretation tells us that she can not tolerate a baby, but second interpretation means that she can not pregnant.

Ambiguous Word Order. In both of the linguistic issues (structural ambiguity and lexical ambiguity), the possible ambiguity is primarily caused by word order (Mohunen and Portunen, 2012: 3). It means that an ambiguous word causes the sentence to have more than one interpretation. ‘Indra refuses because he has to write a paper for economic course’ (Pista: 59). The sentence is

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ambiguous because of containing an ambiguous word order ‘paper’. The word means ‘an essay’ or ‘a layer to write’. The ambiguous sentence above will be interpreted into: 1) Indra refuses because he has to write an essay for economic course and 2) Indra refuses because he has to write a piece of paper for economic course.

Improper or Missing Punctuation. According to Lamb, punctuation is “a series of marks which can be used to separate words and groups of words to make the intended meaning clear and easy to follow” (2008: 1). Hence, in making an unambiguous sentence, proper punctuation is very necessary. The improper or missing punctuation will make a sentence ambiguous. The surface structure ambiguity below is missing of punctuation. ‘Where is the small animal hospital?’ The missing of punctuation makes the interrogative sentence above ambiguous. The reader will confuse on the real meaning whether it is asking the place of the hospital of small animal or the small hospital of animal. The missing punctuation of the sentence above is hyphen (-). The unambiguous sentences are as follows. ‘Where is the small-animal hospital?’ or, ‘Where is the small animal-hospital?’

Faulty Pronoun Reference occurs when the reader can not tell to which antecedent the pronoun in a sentence is reffering (Hasnain, 2011: 1). Faulty pronoun reference makes the sentence becomes ambiguous. The example is: John and Max are brothers, but he has always been taller. The pronoun ‘he’ makes us to ask ‘who is ‘he’?’. The question is whether he is John or Max who has always been taller. The ambiguous sentence above is interpreted into: ‘John and Max are brothers, but John has always been taller’ or ‘John and Max are brothers, but Max has always been taller.’

6. The Ways to Disambiguate Ambiguity

On making the unambiguous sentences, it resolved by using the way to disambiguate ambiguity. Some linguists purposed different ways to disambiguate ambiguity. There are paraphrasing (Hurford, Heasly, and James), adding preposition of (Bhaskara), moving sentence construction (Schlenker), adding additional context (Reed), using hyphen (Davis), and using picture (Barnard).

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Paraphrasing. A sentence which expresses the same proposition as another sentence is a paraphrase of that sentence (assuming the same referents for any referring expressions involved (Hurford, Heasly and Smith, 2007:108-109). It will help to decide the meaning should be taking based on the constructions which possibility aims to. Specifically, the sentence ‘She loves me more than you’ has the two interpretations paraphrased into: ‘She loves me more than you love me’, and ‘She loves me more than she loves you’. The example contains no such ambiguous word, and to understand the ambiguity here, we need to have some way of representing the meaning relations between the words in the sentence. It is exist in the relationship between the words you and loves; to get the first interpretation, you must be seen as the logical subject of loves (representing the person giving love), while for the second interpretations, it must function as the logical object of loves (representing the person receiving love).

Adding Preposition of. The addition of preposition ‘of’ helps interpreting the meaning. Bhaskara, on his site, writes that ‘of’ will be followed by noun (uncountable noun, singular noun and plural noun) or verb in a form of gerund (v+ing) (2009: 1). Now, look at the example ambiguous construction: My brother just bought two stories house on Jalan Sudirman. The interpretation is either ‘bought a house of two stories’ or ‘bought two stories of house’. Adding preposition ‘of’ clarify the meaning into the truly meaning. Hence, the construction changes into ‘My brother just bought house of two stories on Jalan Sudirman’, or, ‘My brother just bought two stories of house on Jalan Sudirman’.

Moving Sentence Constructions. Schlenker proposes “the preceding analysis makes an interesting prediction. A well-chosen constituency test should disambiguate the sentence, i.e. make it unambiguous” (1999: 8). The sentence ‘Mary will hit the student with the book’ means Mary will hit the student. She'll do so with the book. The second interpretation is Mary will hit the student who is holding the book. Next, to show that the meaning represents to the second meaning, the construction replaced into: ‘By using book, Marry will hit the student’, or ‘Marry will hit the student by using book’. The construction shows that the interpretation is ‘the hitting which is done with the book.

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Adding Additional Context. Reed clarified on his book that ambiguity is statements with more than one meaning that, without context, may be interpreted inaccurately (2005: 189). The additional context needs in the sentence to distinct the meaning of ambiguous word. In the sentence ‘He has lost the match’, the word match is itself ambiguous, referring either to ‘a sporting encounter’ or ‘a small piece of wood tipped with easily ignitable material’. To disambiguate the ambiguous word above the sentence arranger better adds the context like below to differentiate between the first meaning and second meaning. There is: 1) He has lost the football match of Liverpool team, or 2) He has lost the match stick to burn the cigarette.

Using Hyphen. The hyphen is a punctuation mark used to join words and to separate syllables of a single word. Davis on his site states that:

The rule to follow when deciding whether or not to use a hyphen is if two or more words are being used as an adjective unit directly before a noun then you may need to use a hyphen to combine them. When the same two words appear after the noun, a hyphen should not be used. (http://www.uhv.edu/)

Here are the examples of hyphen usage: 1) Brown-eyed girl (Clearly, brown-eyed is a single unit of meaning describing girl.) 2) Fur-lined coat (Fur-lined is a single adjective unit modifying coat.) 3) Tone-deaf violinist (Tone-deaf is a single adjective unit describing violist.)

Using Picture. Barnard was mentioned that image can help as the word sense disambiguation since the words are spelt the same (2005: 1). It means that resolving what they mean requires considering context. The word ‘bank’, the common example of lexical ambiguity will provided here. Mother goes to the

bank. Without any picture to clear the meaning, our imagination will direct into

two branches. There are river bank and financial institutional building. That is why we need to provide picture before or after the text.

Mother goes to the bank, or, Mother goes to the bank.

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The type of this study is qualitative research. It is a type of research which results into the descriptive data, in the form of written or oral words from the observed object. It has been used in this research to describe the type of ambiguity, the frequency, the most dominant ambiguity and clarify how to disambiguate 101 ambiguous sentences found in student’s exercise books for vocational school entitled Forum, Pista, Prestige 1, Prestige 2, Prestige 3, Prestige 4, Modul Mentari Bersinar 1 and Modul Mentari Bersinar 2.

In this study, the writer applies documentation as the methods of collecting data in this study. Then, the researcher holds a check-list to find certain variables. It steps are: 1) Reading the exercise book several times, until the researcher understands the information or the data to be analyzed, 2) Finding the English sentences which are ambiguous, and 3) Taking note the entire ambiguous sentence in English exercise on Forum, Pista, Prestige 1, Prestige 2, Prestige 3, Prestige 4, Modul Mentari Bersinar 1 and Modul Mentari Bersinar 2.

The technique of the data analysis is using descriptive qualitative. Firstly, identifying the types of ambiguity. The writer describes the meaning of the ambiguous words for lexical ambiguity using Hurford, Heasly and James theory and find out syntactic ambiguity using bracketing from Kreidler theory. Secondly, describing the frequency of each ambiguity through table and chart. Thirdly, deciding the most dominant ambiguity that can be seen from the table and chart. Fourtly, describing the reasons of the ambiguous sentences in English exercise on Forum, Pista, Prestige 1, Prestige 2, Prestige 3, Prestige 4, Modul Mentari Bersinar 1 and Modul Mentari Bersinar 2. And finally, a conclusion is drawn. 8. Research Findings

a. Types of Ambiguity

There are two types of ambiguity called lexical ambiguity and syntactic ambiguity. Syntactic or structural ambiguity is divided into two: (1) surface-structure ambiguity and (2) deep-surface-structure ambiguity.

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Lexical ambiguity occurs in some parts of speech. They are in verb, noun and adjective. Totally, the writer found 24 sentences in the exercise books containing lexical ambiguity.

a) Verbs

The words including into verb has possibilities to be lexically ambiguous. ‘A few months later my husband was posted in Medan’ (Forum: 6). This sentence is lexically ambiguous since it has the ambiguous word posted. The meaning of the word posted formed by the root ‘post’ distinguished into ‘placed (job)’, ‘sent (parcel/ document)’ and ‘tagged or published in the newspaper, magazine or internet’. It makes the sentence above has the meaning as follows: 1) a few months later my husband was placed in Medan, 2) a few months later my husband was sent to Medan, and 3) a few months later, my husband was tagged/ published in Medan newspaper.

b) Nouns

Noun is involved into lexical ambiguity. The writer found 17 sentences which contain lexical ambiguity. Some sentences provided here. ‘This year, my father to be promoted as director’ (Forum: 22). This construction makes us think that the ambiguous word in italic can not be used to predict the interpretation precisely. ‘Director’ means ‘head of an office’ and ‘the leader on making movie or film’. Both have interpretation on the position of head even though in different field, but no additional context that helps the reader to find the meaning of the full sentence. c) Adjectives

This part of speech has possibilities to be having more than one meaning and forming different interpretation in the sentence. ‘Budi works in a private company’ (Forum: 7). Looking up the meaning of ‘private’ in the dictionary, it means both ‘personal’ and ‘secret or confidential’. Hence ‘a private company’ means ‘a personal company’ and also ‘a secret company’. It means that the construction above is ambiguous because Budi can be works in a personal company and also works in a secret company. That’s why it is called as a form of lexical ambiguity.

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Syntactic ambiguity occurs when a phrase or sentence has more than one underlying structure. The writer found at least 77 sentences that are syntactically ambiguous. It is divided into 59 sentences that belong to surface-structure ambiguity and 18 sentences of deep-structure ambiguity.

a) Surface-structure Ambiguity

(1) A Coordinate Head with One Modifier

A coordinate head means a head formed by two words that are coordinated by conjunction ‘and’. It will be ambiguous since there are some additions that modifies before or after it. There are 8 ambiguous sentences belonging to surface-structure ambiguity in a kind of a coordinate head with one modifier. Some sentences provided then. ‘They sometimes go to nursery school where they learn

simple games and song’ (Forum: 11). The sentence contains ‘games and song’ as

the coordinate head with one modifier, ‘simple’. Hence, the construction ‘simple games and song’ means both games and song are simple since the word ‘simple’ modifies both games and song. If it is only modifying games only, that is only games that are simple. Certainly, it belongs to surface-structure ambiguity that has a coordinate head with one modifier.

(2) A Complement and Modifier or Two Complements

The writer finds 24 sentences of deep-structure ambiguity in kinds of a complement and modifier or two complements. ‘Sorry, he’s out right now’. (Modul Mentari 2: 22). It will be bracketed into: 1) Sorry, he’s [out right] [now], that can be interpreted into ‘now, he is out into the right’. It caused by the complement ‘out’ that was modified by modifier ‘right’. While the 2) bracketed sentence means that right now, he is out. 2) Sorry, he’s [out] [right now]. Both ‘out’ and ‘right now’ has function as two complements in the sentence. It was enough to prove that the sentence contains deep-structure ambiguity.

(3) A Head with an Inner Modifier and an Outer Modifier

The writer finds 25 ambiguous sentences in the 8 student’s exercise books which are contained deep-structure ambiguity called a head with an inner modifier and an outer modifier. The first sentence the writer finds out is: ‘Where do we can see a big Britney’s picture?’ (Forum: 44). The sentence contains deep-structure

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ambiguity that consisted of a head with an inner modifier and an outer modifier. The construction divided into two diverse brackets: (i) [A [big] [Britney’s picture]] and (ii) [A [big Britney’s] [picture]]. The bracket (i) has meaning that there is the picture of Britney which is big. The head ‘picture’ modified by inner modifier ‘Britney’ constructs the meaning into the picture of Britney. The outer modifier ‘big’ explains that a picture of Britney is big. Unlike (i), (ii) has meaning that there is the picture of big Britney. The head ‘Britney’ that modified by modifier ‘big’ constructs the meaning that Britney is big. Then, noun phrase ‘big Britney’ modified the word ‘picture’ hence the meaning becomes the picture of big Britney.

(4) Certain Function Words, Including Not, Have Possible Differences in Scope

Changing word function also constructs a deep-structure ambiguity as a sentence the writer found in Modul Mentari Bersinar. There is only one sentence from 8 student’s exercise books. There is ‘My friends like playing cards’ (Modul Mentari Bersinar 1: 51). The first bracketed is ‘[My friends] like playing [cards]’. ‘Like playing’ functions as a verb. It means that my friends are performing playing card (like to play playing cards). However, the interpretation changes into those playing cards are like my friend (kinds of figurative language) since the word ‘playing’ is changing the word function into gerund like the bracketed construction here: ‘[My friends] like [playing cards]’. Certain word’s function can be changed into another word function because of the construction of the sentence. It means that the meaning is also changing. Thus, it is not impossible that it formed a surface-structure ambiguity.

(5) A Head with A Coordinate Modifier

The writer only found a sentence that belongs to a head with a coordinate modifier. That is ‘you are to choose the two words or phrases that best complete the sentence’. (Modul Mentari 2: 18) The sentence is surface-structurally ambiguous since it can be bracketed into: 1) You are to choose the [two words] or [phrases] that best complete the sentence, and 2) You are to choose the two [words or phrases] that best complete the sentence. The 1) means that you are to

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choose the two words or some phrases (more than two) that best complete the sentence but 2) means you are to choose two words or two phrases that best complete the sentence.

b) Deep-structure Ambiguity

(1) Gerund + Object or Participle Modifying a Noun.

Gerund in English formed by verb and –ing or participle modifying a noun produced a deep-structure ambiguity. The writer found only 2 sentences. There are: 1) The car was driven by a drunken driver (Pista: 67) and 2) A drunken driver hit her car (Pista: 67). ‘A drunken driver’ has more than one interpretation. There are ‘a driver that drives the car drunkenly’ and ‘a driver that has a habit get drunk’. Both sentences above have the same interpretation possibilities. It is true that gerund-object or participle modifying a noun formed an ambiguous construction called deep-structure ambiguity.

(2) Certain Noun Phrase

The writer finds the constructions that are formed by noun phrase. Not all noun phrases can create ambiguity but it just certain noun phrase. The writer finds 16 ambiguous sentences on the student’s exercise books. ‘The small boy can eat rice by himself’ (Modul Mentari 1: 57). Noun phrase ‘the small boy’ has two interpretations; there are children or young boy and a boy that is short and small (size) although he is adult.

b. The Frequency of Ambiguity

Based on the data of ambiguity that the writer found in the eighth student’s exercise books for vocational school entitled Forum, Pista, Prestige 1, Prestige 2, Prestige 3, Prestige 4, Modul Mentari1 and Modul Mentari 2, the writer makes a table to show the frequency of the types of ambiguity. The percentage of ambiguity on the data chart gets from:

= Σ

Σ ( 101) × 100%

Table data below provides the result of each ambiguity frequency found in eight vocational school student’s exercise book.

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Types of Ambiguity Number Percentage

Lexical Ambiguity - Verbs - Nouns - Adjectives 24 3 17 4 23,8 % 3% 16,8% 4% Structural Ambiguity Surface-Structure Ambiguity

- Constructions containing the coordinators and and or. - A coordinate head with one modifier.

- A complement and modifier or two complements. - A head with an inner modifier and an outer modifier. - Certain function words, including not, have possible

differences in scope

- A head with a coordinate modifier Deep-Structure Ambiguity

- Gerund+object or participle modifying a noun.

- Adjective+infinitive, tied to subject or to complement.

- Ellipsis in comparative constructions - Certain Noun Phrase

77 59 - 8 24 25 1 1 18 2 - - 16 76,2 % 58,4 % - 7,92% 23,8% 24,7% 1% 1% 17,8 % 2% - - 15,8%

c. The Dominant Type of Ambiguity

The type of ambiguity that appears dominantly is structural or syntactical ambiguity since the writer found 77 from 101 ambiguous sentences or 76,2%. In detail, the dominant structural ambiguity is surface-structure ambiguity because of the writer found 59 from 101 ambiguous sentences or about 58,4%. Moreover, according to the kinds of surface-structure ambiguity, there are 25 ambiguous sentences or 24,7% belongs to a head with an inner modifier and an outer modifier.

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xxi d. The Reason of Ambiguity

1) Without Context

Without context, the sentence can be lexically ambiguous. The short ambiguous sentence ‘that’s my pen’ (Pista: 35) is its evidence. Lexically, the word pen means ‘the utensil to write’ and also ‘the pig or dog cage’. The reason of its lexical ambiguity is on the context that is not provided in the sentence. The right sentence is provided into: 1) That’s my pen to write (the utensil to write) or, 2) That’s my hog’s pen (cage). The way to disambiguate the lexical ambiguity above is using paraphrasing and adding additional context

2) Ambiguous Word Order

An ambiguous word order may cause the sentence has more than one meaning too. It is proved by the lexical ambiguous sentence, ‘a few moths later my husband was posted in Medan’ (Forum: 6). The sentence is lexically ambiguous since it has the ambiguous word posted. The meaning of the word posted formed by the root ‘post’ distinguished into ‘placed (job)’, ‘sent (parcel/ document)’ and ‘tagged or published in the newspaper, magazine or internet’. The unambiguous sentences are as follows: a) a few months later my husband was placed in Medan, 2) a few months later my husband was sent to Medan, and 3) few months later, my husband was tagged/ published in Medan newspaper. Paraphrasing is a good choice to disambiguate lexical ambiguity on the verb like above.

3) Improper or Missing Punctuation

Britney’s picture?’ (Forum: 44) are the picture of Britney which is big and also

the picture of big Britney. The sentence is ambiguous because of no punctuation which is added. The unambiguous sentences are: 1) Where do we can see a big-Britney’s picture? (the picture of big-Britney) and 2) Where do we can see a big Britney’s-picture? (Britney’s picture is big). The way to resolved it is using punctuation hyphen (-) or adding preposition of.

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xxii 4) Faulty of Sentence Structure

The sentence is surface-structurally ambiguous since there is a faulty structure of the sentence. The interpretation of that sentence ‘Mr. Dono invites Mrs. Ayu to have dinner in the Hailai’ (Forum: 10) is divided into two. They are: 1) the inviting process is done in the Hailai and 2) the dinner will be held in Hailai. For the first meaning, the sentence conducted into: ‘In the Hailai, Mr. Dono invites Mrs. Ayu to have dinner’, or, ‘Mr. Dono, in the Hailai, invites Mrs. Ayu to have dinner’. Next for the second one, it conducted into: ‘To have dinner in the Hailai, Mr. Dono invites Mrs. Ayu’. Those ambiguous sentences above disambiguates by using moving sentence construction.

9. Conclusion

After describing and analyzing data, the writer draws some conclusions based on the ambiguity found in English exercise of vocational school student’s exercise books.

a. Based on the types of ambiguity, the writer finds lexical ambiguity classifies into three parts of speech; verbs, nouns, and adjectives. Structural ambiguity or syntactic ambiguity divided into surface-structure ambiguity and deep-structure ambiguity. It means that the writer of English exercise in the vocational school student’s exercise books often use some ambiguous word and ambiguous construction in making English sentences.

b. Viewed from the frequency, from total number 101 ambiguous sentences, there are 24 lexical ambiguities (23,8%) and 77 structural or syntactic ambiguities (76,2%). Lexical ambiguity is including 3 ambiguous verbs (3%), 17 ambiguous nouns (16,8%), and 4 ambiguous adjectives (4%). Syntactic ambiguity divided into 59 surface-structure ambiguities (58,4%); 8 ambiguous sentences of a coordinate head with one modifier (7,92%), 24 ambiguous sentences of a complement and modifier or two complements (23,8%), 25 ambiguous sentences of a head with an inner modifier and an outer modifier (24,7%), an ambiguous sentence of certain function words, including not, have possible differences in scope (1%), an ambiguous sentence of a head with one modifier (1%) and also 18 deep-structure ambiguities (17,8%); 2 ambiguous

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xxiii

sentences gerund+object or participle modifying a noun (2%), and also 16 ambiguous sentences of certain noun phrase (15,8%). It means that almost of English exercise on the vocational school student’s exercise books still need too many revise before it used by the students since there are found a lot of ambiguous construction.

c. Looking at the frequency, the writer proposes the dominant type of ambiguity from the eight vocational school student’s exercise books entitled Forum, Pista, Prestige 1, Prestige 2, Prestige 3, Prestige 4, Modul Mentari 1, and Modul Mentari 2. The dominant type of ambiguity is syntactic ambiguity. There are 77 sentences (76,2%) are structurally ambiguous. It means that the writer of English exercise in the vocational school student’s exercise books dominantly makes the sentence without caring the better construction first to get the clear interpretation.

d. The reasons of ambiguity are without context, ambiguous word order, improper or missing punctuation and faulty of sentence structure. It means that there are a lot of reasons that makes the sentences found in the student’s exercise books become ambiguous.

As the result, the writer conclude that the writer of English exercise on the vocational school student’s exercise books entitled Forum, Pista, Prestige 1, Prestige 2, Prestige 3, Prestige 4, Modul Mentari Bersinar 1, and Modul Mentari Bersinar 2 still constructs a lot of ambiguous constructions since the writer found 101 ambiguous construction. Mostly are structurally ambiguous. It means that the writer of those still makes some mistake on arranging sentence by faulty of sentence structure, using improper punctuation or missing punctuation, and also making a sentence without context. It raises some problem when the students do the English exercises and it needs some answer. It makes the reader even the vocational school students confused to understand the real interpretation of the sentences and the right answer.

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xxiv REFERENCES

Al Hakim, Luqman. 2009. A Study on the Ambiguity Found in English Test for Junior High School Students. Unpublished Research Paper. Surakarta: Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta

Bhaskara, Swara. 2009. Penggunaan Kata Depan “of”. http://swarabhaskara.com/. Accessed on Tuesday, Februari 28th, 2012 at 21:35

Davis, John. 2004. Using Hyphens in Compound Adjectives (and Exceptions to the Rule). http://www.uhv.edu/. Accessed on Tuesday, Februari 28th, 2012 at 15:06

Hasnain. 2011. Faulty Pronoun Reference. http://mzhasnain.com. Accessed on Moncay, June 11st, 2012 at 20:01

Hurford, James R., Brendan Heasley and Michael B.Smith. 2007. Semantics: A Coursebook. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Jacobus, Natasha. 2007. The Study of Structural Ambiguity in The Interview Articles of English Tempo Magazine. Unpublished Research Paper. Surabaya: Universitas Kristen Petra

Kobus Barnard, and Matthew Johnson. 2005. Word Sense Disambiguation with Pictures. Arizona: University of Arizona

Kristiaty, Susan. 2006. The Structural and Lexical Ambiguity Found in Cleo Magazine Advertisements. Unpublished Research Paper. Surabaya: Universitas Kristen Petra

Lamb, Bernard. 2008. Practical Guide to Punctuation. http://queens-english-society.com/index.html. Accessed on Monday, June 11st, 2012 at 19:16 Mohunen, Kristiina and Tanja Portunen. 2012. Detecting Semantic Ambiguity.

Helsinki: CSLI Publications

Reed, Vicky A. 2005. An Introduction to Children with Language Disorders. Bolton: Pearson

Schlenker, Phillip. 2006. Introduction to the Study of Language. Los Angeles. UCLA

Prideaux , Gary D and Wm. J. Baker. 1976. Recognition of Ambiguity. Alberta: The University of Alberta.

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choose the two words or some phrases (more than two) that best complete the sentence but 2) means you are to choose two words or two phrases that best complete the sentence.

b) Deep-structure Ambiguity

(1) Gerund + Object or Participle Modifying a Noun.

(2) Certain Noun Phrase

rice by himself’ (Modul Mentari 1: 57). Noun phrase ‘the small boy’ has two

interpretations; there are children or young boy and a boy that is short and small (size) although he is adult.

b. The Frequency of Ambiguity

= Σ

Σ ( 101) × 100%

Table data below provides the result of each ambiguity frequency found in eight vocational school student’s exercise book.

(2)

Types of Ambiguity Number Percentage Lexical Ambiguity

- Verbs - Nouns - Adjectives

24 3 17 4 23,8 % 3% 16,8% 4% Structural Ambiguity Surface-Structure Ambiguity

- Constructions containing the coordinators and and or. - A coordinate head with one modifier.

- A complement and modifier or two complements. - A head with an inner modifier and an outer modifier. - Certain function words, including not, have possible

differences in scope

- A head with a coordinate modifier Deep-Structure Ambiguity

- Gerund+object or participle modifying a noun.

- Adjective+infinitive, tied to subject or to complement.

- Ellipsis in comparative constructions - Certain Noun Phrase

77 59 - 8 24 25 1 1 18 2 - - 16 76,2 % 58,4 % - 7,92% 23,8% 24,7% 1% 1% 17,8 % 2% - - 15,8%

c. The Dominant Type of Ambiguity

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d. The Reason of Ambiguity 1) Without Context

Without context, the sentence can be lexically ambiguous. The short ambiguous sentence ‘that’s my pen’ (Pista: 35) is its evidence. Lexically, the word

pen means ‘the utensil to write’ and also ‘the pig or dog cage’. The reason of its

lexical ambiguity is on the context that is not provided in the sentence. The right sentence is provided into: 1) That’s my pen to write (the utensil to write) or, 2) That’s my hog’s pen (cage). The way to disambiguate the lexical ambiguity above is using paraphrasing and adding additional context

2) Ambiguous Word Order

ambiguous since it has the ambiguous word posted. The meaning of the word posted formed by the root ‘post’ distinguished into ‘placed (job)’, ‘sent (parcel/

document)’ and ‘tagged or published in the newspaper, magazine or internet’. The unambiguous sentences are as follows: a) a few months later my husband was placed in Medan, 2) a few months later my husband was sent to Medan, and 3) few months later, my husband was tagged/ published in Medan newspaper. Paraphrasing is a good choice to disambiguate lexical ambiguity on the verb like above.

3) Improper or Missing Punctuation

Improper or missing punctuation may cause ambiguity. This is usually happened to surface-structure ambiguity in the kinds of a head with an inner modifier and an outer modifier. The interpretations of ‘where do we can see a big Britney’s picture?’ (Forum: 44) are the picture of Britney which is big and also the picture of big Britney. The sentence is ambiguous because of no punctuation which is added. The unambiguous sentences are: 1) Where do we can see a

big-Britney’s picture? (the picture of big-Britney) and 2) Where do we can see a big Britney’s-picture? (Britney’s picture is big). The way to resolved it is using

punctuation hyphen (-) or adding preposition of.

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4) Faulty of Sentence Structure

9. Conclusion

After describing and analyzing data, the writer draws some conclusions based on the ambiguity found in English exercise of vocational school student’s exercise books.

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c. Looking at the frequency, the writer proposes the dominant type of ambiguity from the eight vocational school student’s exercise books entitled Forum,

Pista, Prestige 1, Prestige 2, Prestige 3, Prestige 4, Modul Mentari 1, and Modul Mentari 2. The dominant type of ambiguity is syntactic ambiguity.

There are 77 sentences (76,2%) are structurally ambiguous. It means that the writer of English exercise in the vocational school student’s exercise books dominantly makes the sentence without caring the better construction first to get the clear interpretation.

As the result, the writer conclude that the writer of English exercise on the vocational school student’s exercise books entitled Forum, Pista, Prestige 1,

Prestige 2, Prestige 3, Prestige 4, Modul Mentari Bersinar 1, and Modul Mentari Bersinar 2 still constructs a lot of ambiguous constructions since the writer found

101 ambiguous construction. Mostly are structurally ambiguous. It means that the writer of those still makes some mistake on arranging sentence by faulty of sentence structure, using improper punctuation or missing punctuation, and also making a sentence without context. It raises some problem when the students do the English exercises and it needs some answer. It makes the reader even the vocational school students confused to understand the real interpretation of the sentences and the right answer.

(6)

REFERENCES

Al Hakim, Luqman. 2009. A Study on the Ambiguity Found in English Test for

Junior High School Students. Unpublished Research Paper. Surakarta:

Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta

Bhaskara, Swara. 2009. Penggunaan Kata Depan “of”. http://swarabhaskara.com/. Accessed on Tuesday, Februari 28th, 2012 at 21:35

Davis, John. 2004. Using Hyphens in Compound Adjectives (and Exceptions to

the Rule). http://www.uhv.edu/. Accessed on Tuesday, Februari 28th, 2012 at 15:06

Hasnain. 2011. Faulty Pronoun Reference. http://mzhasnain.com. Accessed on Moncay, June 11st, 2012 at 20:01

Hurford, James R., Brendan Heasley and Michael B.Smith. 2007. Semantics: A

Coursebook. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Jacobus, Natasha. 2007. The Study of Structural Ambiguity in The Interview

Articles of English Tempo Magazine. Unpublished Research Paper.

Surabaya: Universitas Kristen Petra

Kobus Barnard, and Matthew Johnson. 2005. Word Sense Disambiguation with

Pictures. Arizona: University of Arizona

Kristiaty, Susan. 2006. The Structural and Lexical Ambiguity Found in Cleo

Magazine Advertisements. Unpublished Research Paper. Surabaya:

Universitas Kristen Petra

Lamb, Bernard. 2008. Practical Guide to Punctuation.

http://queens-english-society.com/index.html. Accessed on Monday, June 11st, 2012 at 19:16

Mohunen, Kristiina and Tanja Portunen. 2012. Detecting Semantic Ambiguity. Helsinki: CSLI Publications

Reed, Vicky A. 2005. An Introduction to Children with Language Disorders. Bolton: Pearson

Schlenker, Phillip. 2006. Introduction to the Study of Language. Los Angeles. UCLA

Prideaux , Gary D and Wm. J. Baker. 1976. Recognition of Ambiguity. Alberta: The University of Alberta.

NASKAH PUBLIKASI A Study On The Ambiguity Found In English Exercises Of Vocational School Student’s Exercise Books.